Alkhanay National Park

About

Alkhanay National Park (Russian: Национальный парк «Алханай») encompasses the area around Mt. Alkhanai, a central focus and sacred mountain to the Buryats people, who today are the largest indigenous group in Siberia. Mt. Alkanai has been adopted as sacred by later Mongols, shamanistic people, and Buddhists. The Dalai Lama has made two unofficial visits to Alkhanay. The area takes its name from an old legend, in which a princess took refuge from her pursuers on the top of the mountain, defiantly shouting as they approached, "kill me!", which translates to "Alkhanai" in the local language. Despite the ancient name, the focus today of Buddhist pilgrims as they ascend the mountain pathway is one of peacefulness and healing. The park seeks to balance support for continued pilgrimage to the rock landforms and mineral springs, with conservation of nature and recreational tourism. Alkhanay NP is located in the Trans-Baikal (East Siberia) region of Russia, about 300 miles east of the lake, and 75 miles north of Mongolia's northern border. It is in the administrative region of Aginsky District, Zabaykalsky Krai.

The area is one of steppe-forest on mountains of medium-height (1,000-1,200 meters). The park lies in the transitional zone between the East Siberian taiga to the north, and the Mongolian Steppe province of the Eurasian steppe to the south. It is situated in the Duldurginsky District of Agin-Buryat Okrug in Zabaykalsky Krai. The Mt. Alkhanai massive (1,663 m) dominates the southern slope of the local mountain range (the Mogotuyskogo Range). The park streams feed the Onon River, which is one of the westernmost tributaries of the Amur River, which flows 1,000 miles to the northern Pacific. The landscapes of the park include forested mountains, steep canyons with streams and waterfalls, springs, and vistas of the vast undulating plains to the south. the tops of the mountains are mostly dome-shaped with bare rock in places. The rock landforms reflect the ancient remains of volcanoes (including Mt. Alkhanai itself), and an underlying fault on which the area was centered in the Jurassic period. There are few lakes, but many wetlands along the streams, and the many springs are cold with calcium carbonate.

The region has a subarctic climate (Köppen climate classification Dwc). The Siberian High makes the winters so dry (typically with around 5 millimetres or 0.20 inches of rainfall equivalent per month) that snow cover is very limited. Summers are short and relatively cool. The characteristic habitat is temperate grassland, savanna, and shrubland. Mean temperatures range from −12.4 °F or −24.7 °C in January to 63.1 °F or 17.3 °C in July. Average annual precipitation is 14.1 inches or 358.1 millimetres. The ecoregion of Alkhanay is Daurian forest steppe. This region has been described as a "sea of grass that forms the best and most intact example of an undisturbed steppe ecosystem and is also one of the last areas in the Palearctic that still supports stable herds of larger vertebrates" in a semi-mountainous area. The park's 37 streams form most of the catchment area of the Ilya river, a tributary of the Onon River. The freshwater ecoregion is Temperate Upland River, in this case designated by the WWF as the "Shilka (Amur) Freshwater Ecoregion (WWF ID #619)". The hilly streams of the Onon region lack the migratory fish found in the lower Amur, and are characterized by the species found on temperate streams with steep forest banks. There is only one endemic species of fish known in the ecoregion - the Bagrid catfish (Pseudobagrus herzensteini), a species reliably known in only the hilly streams of the Onon and Shilka rivers. There are known to be 18 species of fish in the lakes of the park.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.